Hello, I am an international student studying in De Anza community college now.
Well, actually, before I was in the community college, I studied in English Institute for English-second language students. (Which is not a college/or univ’s courses, but it’s more like a English preparation courses before attending colleges.)
Yesterday, I received an email from the UCs that I need to submit the unofficial transcript from that English Institute Program. And actually I have pretty bad grades. I have one D, one F, and one Unsatisfactory out of 10 classes.
I’m currently applying to UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCD, UCI, and UCSB as a sociocultural anthropology major as a transfer studnet, and I have 3.88 of GPA at De Anza College. (And I finished all GEs based on IGETC, and I currently have more than 90 of transferrable units.)
I’m pretty curious if the low grades that I received from the English Institute would affect on my application significantly.
Thank you.
Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing whether they will or won’t make a difference. With that being said, the fact that you finished all of the necessary coursework with a very competitive GPA for Anthropology makes it unlikely that they will hold it against you. A high performing student at an American college is going to be competent in English so it would seem ridiculous to reject you because of those grades.
You have to report any post-secondary school education as a rule so I would imagine that they just want to have the transcript for the sake of covering all of the basis.
That’s what I believe…! I pretty much regret of my behaviors at that Eng institute by being absent and not turning in the homeworks… I deserve with the bad result
But, I hope I can get into the UCB, UCLA, or UCSD with relatively high GPA…!
Thank you
@bryanchung since most of the classes you took at that institute were esl, they are most likely not uc transferable. I believe UC calculates your gpa only in those classes that are uc transferable, so you should be good. To be on the safe side, let them know that these were esl classes.
@bryanchung, Did you divulge those ESL courses to your international coordinator at De Anza?
If you did, the UCs will honor whatever equivalent the CCC determined. (If your CCC says it’s the equivalent of a non-UC transferable course, then the UCs will too.)
If you didn’t, it’s likely they will consider it the equivalent of English 98/99 “self study” credit because it’s still considered course(s) outside of the [“13-year system”](http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/international/applying-for-admission/freshman-requirements-country/index.html#thirteen).
@SDGoldenBear Hello, what doest the 98/99 “self study” credit mean?
Do you mean even though i didnt divulge those Esl courses to De Anza, it won’t affect on my application? Or do u mean that it might highly affect on my app cuz I did not divulge them? Thanks
Thanks @lenocturne . Which way is better to notify them? through e-mail or by calling them?
thank you
@bryanchung I don’t think it would affect you in terms of anything with De Anza. It would definitely have an effect if you didn’t tell UCLA about it, but it sounds like you did. If you told De Anza and they included it on your transcript as transferred classes, then it would affect your De Anza GPA, otherwise, it’s considered separate. For example, I earned most of my credits out-of-state and needed to take classes at my closest CCC to complete UCLA’s requirements. I never wanted a degree from my CCC, so I didn’t ask them to transfer my classes from my out-of-state college.
That being said, the UCs also want to know if you have any other transferable credits for your own benefit and for their GPA calculations. They may want my high school grades, for example, but they won’t count them toward my GPA.
@bryanchung,
Each UC has a course for “independent” or “special” study units that are also used as placeholders for courses that earn credit but do not directly line up with any other course. They are usually numbered as 98, 99, 198, or 199 in the course catalogs. (Here are [url=<a href=“http://guide.berkeley.edu/search/?P=ENGLISH%2099%5DBerkeley%5B/url”>http://guide.berkeley.edu/search/?P=ENGLISH%2099]Berkeley[/url] and [url=<a href=“http://catalog.ucdavis.edu/programs/ENL/ENLcourses.html%5DDavis%5B/url”>http://catalog.ucdavis.edu/programs/ENL/ENLcourses.html]Davis[/url] for example.)
The issue is most international institutions that offer curriculum past the 13 year system are classified as “post-secondary education” and have to be evaluated as such. Terms such as “college”, “vocational school”, “collegiate institute”, or “educational institute” are not accepted for face value and one simply can’t make the determination that it isn’t the equivalent of a US university and go from there. Because of this, it’s highly recommended to report such international elements to your first American institution (De Anza) to set a precedent. In your case, since there is no precedent, the UCs will have to evaluate it separately and will likely give you the aformentioned “self study” credit for those ESL courses.
Regardless, while I do think your ESL courses will be considered, I don’t think it will “highly” affect your admissions application for the reasons @TheVisionary stated.